Osama bin Laden killed: the first day, as it happened

Barack Obama says 'the world is a safer place' after al-Qaeda leader Osama bin
Laden is killed by US Special Forces in Abbottabad, Pakistan, just 800 yards
from the country's 'Sandhurst' military training college.

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Obama bin Laden has been killed by US forces in a fortified compound near Islamabad.Photo: AFP and ABC News

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Pakistani army soldiers secure the compound where Osama bin Laden was killed in Abbottabad, north west PakistanPhoto: EPA/IFTIKHAR TANOLI

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The bed inside the room where Osama bin Laden is said to have been killedPhoto: ABC News

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Blood on the floor inside the room where Osama bin Laden is said to have been killedPhoto: ABC News

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The compound, where Osama bin Laden was killed, is seen in flames after it was attacked in AbbottabadPhoto: Reuters

Latest

23.50 A US national security official has confirmed to Reuters what the Telegraph's Tim Ross reported earlier- that one of the key sources for information about the al Qaeda "courier" who led US authorities to bin Laden's Pakistani hide-out was Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the 9/11 mastermind.

23.46 Pakistan is facing questions about the amount of aid it accepted from the US while Osama bin Laden lived within its borders.

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"The United States provides billions of dollars in aid to Pakistan," said Senator Frank Lautenberg, a fellow Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee that apportions government spending. "Before we send another dime, we need to know whether Pakistan truly stands with us in the fight against terrorism."

23.40 Spoof posters like this one are now proliferating online, highlighting a public surge of goodwill towards President Obama.

23.34 Bin Laden's death has caused a memorabillia explosion in New York, with street vendors and online stores busily peddling trinkets to commemorate the moment.

Hastily designed mugs and T-shirts appeared for sale online, many featuring bin Laden's face the word 'DEAD' scrawled in large letters, Reuters reports.

One t-shirt depicted bin Laden with a bloody gunshot wound in his forehead, while another showed a soldier carrying an American flag and the words "We Got Him".

23.32The Sun is the last British paper to release tomorrow's front page, predictably leading on a somewhat tortured pun.

23.28 Gordon Rayner, the Telegraph's Chief Reporter, examines "bin Laden’s almost supernatural ability to dodge the combined might of the western world’s military and intelligence powers". He writes:

From the stone-age caves of Tora Bora to a luxury apartment in Tehran, the CIA chased endless shadows and false leads in a hunt that seemed destined to fail. Many analysts came to believe that bin Laden was already dead, having succumbed, supposedly, to typhoid.

In the end, America’s unending obsession with Osama bin Laden led them to a hideout that could hardly have been further removed from the mountains and tunnels where most people pictured him being holed up: a million-dollar purpose-built compound within walking distance of Pakistan’s main military academy.

22.23 The Guardian's front page questions why it took the US so long to capture its most wanted man.

23.20The Times unveils a straightforward take on bin Laden's death on tomorrow's front page.

23.18 The Telegraph's Catherine Geeis disturbed by images of jubilation on the streets of America. She tweets:

So when Muslims cheer about dead Westerners it's bad. But it's fine when we do it? Bad taste much.

Easy, today, to glide over the fact that via the UN Security Council, Russia and China just welcomed a political assassination by the US

23.11 PJ Crowley, a former US State Department spokeswoman, tells BBC Newsnight:

A year-and-a-half ago, Secretary Clinton was in Islamabad. I was with her and she mused out loud that it was hard for her to conceive that no-one in the Pakistani government knew where Bin Laden was. And now that we see that he's in a compound close to retired military officers or to a garrison and a school, that question will come back up yet again.

23.09 The White House has now released a full photo gallerycharting the mounting tension in the days and hours leading up to the attack on bin Laden.

22.55 Sir Christopher Meyer, Britain's ambassador to the US during the 9/11 attacks, warns of the possible ramifications of bin Laden's death on the BBC's Newsnight.

At this moment of triumph, I think there are two worms of doubt which we must not ignore. One is whether his death will actually excite extremism in certain quarters of the Islamic world among Jihadists. And secondly, we have no idea yet, I don't think, what the impact is going to be in Pakistan. Given that the Pakistanis get very, very irritated when they think that their sovereignty is being abused by American military action which crosses the border from Afghanistan.

22.43 The UN Security Council welcomes the death of Bin Laden, describing it as a "critical development" in the fight against terrorism, according to the AFP news agency.

22.39 Tomorrow's Daily Mirror front page carries a photograph of the blood on the carpeted floor of the al-Qarda compound where bin Laden was killed.

22.33 The Daily Mail has released its front page for tomorrow, leading on the drama which unfolded in the White House as Obama and his aides watched the attack on bin Laden via a live video feed.

22.24 The White House has released this picture of President Obama, Hillary Clinton and Vice President Joe Biden watching the mission against bin Laden unfold in the Situation Room of the White House, along with members of the national security team. The expressions on the faces of Obama and Clinton in particular are worth a thousand words.

22.20 Wajid Hasan, Pakistan's High Commissioner to the UK, says his government helped the Americans in tracking down Bin Laden. He tells BBC Newsnight:

The Pakistani government was throughout co-operating with the American intelligence and they had been monitoring his (Bin Laden's) activities, so did the Americans. And they kept a track of him from Afghanistan into Waziristan and then into Afghanistan again and then again into north Waziristan. But when he found that it was becoming difficult for him to keep on his movements there he moved into this Abbottabad and that is where he made his mistake.

22.19 The Telegraph'sPeter Oborne asks: was bin Laden sheltered by corrupt Pakistani authorities or lured into a trap?

This is a country where terrorist attacks on the armed forces are, sadly, routine events. So the military would have been obliged to check out every single house in the town, especially a big, slightly mysterious and heavily fortified structure such as the one that hosted al-Qaeda's leader in his final days. General David Petraeus visited Abbottabad as recently as last November, when bin Laden was reportedly already present – an event in itself that would have made a major security search inevitable. That is why so many are coming to believe the theory that Pakistan's army was complicit in hiding bin Laden.

Last night, however, a well-placed source with strong links to Pakistan's security establishment put to me an alternative analysis. He said that bin Laden had been lured away from his mountain hideout with a promise of total security – only to be betrayed. This is a very different kind of story, because it suggests that the ISI and the Pakistani army may have played a significant part in the operation which brought about bin Laden's death.

22.13 The Telegraph's Tim Ross has uncovered full detailsof how the mastermind of the 9/11 attacks gave the US the breakthrough that resulted in the killing of Osama bin Laden.

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (KSM), who was repeatedly subjected to methods including “waterboarding” and stress positions, provided the CIA with the name of bin Laden’s personal courier, according to US officials.

A second source – also an al-Qaeda “leader” held at Guantanamo Bay – then confirmed the courier’s identity, sparking an intense manhunt that resulted in the dramatic final raid.

Secret documents seen by The Daily Telegraph disclose that this second source – the terrorist operations chief, Abu Faraj al-Libi – played a key role in finding “safe havens” for bin Laden and lived in the military town where he was finally found.

22.08 Downing Street has just issued a statement following a meeting of the government's emergency committee, Cobra. It said:

During the meeting the Prime Minister (David Cameron) updated those present on the full details of the US security operation and reiterated his praise for the professionalism of the US Special Forces team. The group welcomed the (US) President's announcement and agreed it was an important step forward in the fight against terror. The group also discussed the potential impacts of the incident. They agreed to continue to make every effort to counter terrorism and extremism.

22.02 The Daily Telegraph's front page also highlights the ignominy of bin Laden's death as he cowered behind his wife.

21.58 The Daily Express has released tomorrow's front page, leading on bin Laden's cowardice in hiding behind his wife as US forces came for him.

21.49 Reuters has conducted a snap survey to gauge public reaction to bin Laden's death. Here's the analysis:

The United States made the right decision to kill al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, according to an online poll on Monday that also gives President Barack Obama a boost.

U.S. special forces killed bin Laden in Pakistan Sunday, bringing a dramatic end to the long manhunt for the man who was the most powerful symbol of Islamist militancy.

Seventy-nine percent who participated in the poll said Washington made the right decision to kill bin Laden, compared with 14 percent who said no and 7 percent who were not sure.

But only 25 percent said they felt safer after the death of the al Qaeda leader, compared with 59 percent who said they did not.

A slim majority of respondents, or 51 percent, said bin Laden's killing had not changed their perception of Obama's leadership. But 29 percent said it made them feel more favorable to him and 13 percent said they now feel much more favorable. Seven percent said the killing made them feel less so.

21.44 The Independent is the first British newspaper to release tomorrow's front page, with a montage of bin Laden's legacy of terror.

21.38 Nick Clegg, Theresa May and George Osborne were among the Cabinet ministers pulled into a meeting of the Cobra emergency meeting by David Cameron this evening.

21.34 The successful mission to kill bin Laden means that Obama is a dead cert for reelection in 2012, according to the Economist's Democracy in America blog. The post, headed "What this means for 2012", begins:

It means Barack Obama is probably getting re-elected. Not just for overseeing the strike that killed America's most public enemy, but for his unrivalled poise over these last few weeks, and the moral clarity, confidence and fairness he showed last night. That will be remembered as a great moment in presidential leadership. And here we were thinking that the White House Correspondent's Dinner was going to be the high point of his weekend. How cool is this president?

This is a proud day for America, and especially for every member of IAVA who has served in Iraq and Afghanistan since 9/11. The IAVA community congratulates our brave brothers and sisters involved in this historic operation.

We hope this news inspires renewed support and appreciation for the continuing sacrifice of our troops and veterans. More than 2.2 million service members have worked toward this day for almost 10 years and they all deserve praise.

21.17 More details are emerging about a propaganda tape which US intelligence officials reportedly believe bin Laden recorded shortly before his death.

It is unclear whether the tape is audio or video, but a US official has told AP that intelligence indicates it is already working its way through al-Qaida's media pipeline. The official said the timing was coincidental and there is no indication bin Laden knew forces were bearing down on him.

The most recent videotape of bin Laden to date was recorded in October 2004. The lack of video evidence since then has prompted many to speculate that he could already be dead.

A new recording would provide a final word from the beyond grave for a terrorist who taunted the US and its allies for years.

21.13 The Telegraph's Peter Oborne is on the ground in Abbottabad. He sends this reporton a peaceful garrison town which he calls "Pakistan’s answer to Aldershot".

Osama bin Laden met his death in the cleanest town I have ever seen in Pakistan.

It was early evening but the time I arrived in Abbottabad after a slow, winding journey north from Islamabad along the famous Kula Kula highway which links Pakistan to China.

We discreetly negotiated several army checkpoints along the way but the town itself was peaceful.

The whole world may be alive with anticipation and excitement as it digests the news that the biggest manhunt in history has reached its gory conclusion, but the most important death of the 21st century so far seems to have made little impact in Abbottabad.

21.04 Two Pentagon officials have told AP that bin Laden's burial at sea was videotaped and that the footage will probably be publicly released soon.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, the officials said photos of the body prior to its disposal in the North Arabian Sea on Monday also may be released.

Even a very partial, very haphazard, tallying of the costs from 9/11 reaches swiftly into the trillions of dollars. The Afghanistan and Iraq wars, neither of which would’ve been launched without bin Laden’s provocation, will cost us a few trillion on their own, actually. But before such reprisals were even on the table, there was the attack itself, which largely shut down the American economy for a matter of days, and then slowed it for weeks.

20.57 New York City authorities have determined that a "suspicious package" found in Times Square is not dangerous after briefly shutting down a street, Reuters reports.

20.56 BREAKING: A US official has told AP that a new bin Laden tape, recorded shortly before death, is expected to surface soon.

Now that Bin Laden is dead, can I finally travel with shampoo and hand cream that is more than 125ml?

20.51 Facebook has deleted a page - called We are All Osama Bin Ladin - created by people who hailed the al-Qaeda leader as a "hero" and a "freedom fighter". The move has been denounced by the website Arab Crunch.

20.42 Back here in Britain, David Cameron is chairing a meeting of the government's Cobra emergencies committee.

He spoke earlier by telephone with Pakistan's President Asif Ali Zadari and with Afghan President Hamid Karzai.

"The Prime Minister made clear in the conversations that Britain would continue to work extremely closely with both Afghanistan and Pakistan to tackle the terrorist threat from al Qaida and from the Taliban," a No 10 spokesman said.

"The Prime Minister also underlined the importance of effective co-operation between Afghanistan and Pakistan against terrorism and extremism."

20.41Carl Levi, chair of the US Senate Armed Services Committee, says he believes President Obama will be minded to execute a "robust reduction" of US troops from Afghanistan this summer as a result of Bin Laden's death, Reuters reports.

20.40 President Obama will give further details of the mission to capture or kill bin Laden on camera at 20.15 local time (01.15 GMT) on Monday.

20.39 New York City authorities are investigating a suspicious package in Times Square, Reuters reports. That is about three miles north of the World Trade Center site.

I think there is always the potential for terrorist groups to try to strike out and avenge an operation like this.

But also I think some of them are asking themselves, you know, 'Bin Laden's dead.' The Al-Qaeda narrative is becoming increasingly bankrupt.

This is a strategic blow to Al-Qaeda. It is a necessary, but not necessarily sufficient, blow to lead to its demise.

But we are determined to destroy it. I think we have a lot better opportunity now that bin Laden is out of there, to destroy that organization; create fractures within it.

20.25 The details of bin Laden's capture will harm his credibility among supporters, Brennan said.

“Living in this million dollar plus compound, in an area that is far away from the front, hiding behind a woman: it really speaks to just how false his narrative has been over the years,” the US counter-terrorism chief said.

He added that a woman “presumed to be bin Laden’s wife” was “positioned in a way that indicated that she was being used as a human shield, whether bin Laden or his son put her there, or she put herself there.”

20.20 Pakistani authorities scrambled military jets because they were unaware of the planned raid on bin Laden's compound, but US forces got out of the country before they engaged, Brennan revealed.

20.15 Brennan revealed that there were disagreements in the White House over whether the raid on bin Laden's suspected compound should go ahead.

“The president goes round the room and he wants to hear people’s views. We had a certain amount of circumstantial evidence and some people felt it was insufficient to do something like this. There were differences of views, and that’s what the president wants to know,” he said.

He added that by ordering bin Laden’s capture, based only on circumstantial evidence, Obama had “made what I believe was one of the most gutsiest calls by any president in living memory.”

20.04 The head of US counter-terrorism described unbearably tense scenes in the White House as the President and his advisors followed the operation to kill or capture bin Laden in real time.

We were able to monitor in real time the live progress of the operation. It was probably one of the most anxiety filled periods of time in the lives of any of the people assembled.

The minutes felt like days and the President was very concerned about the wellbeing of his personnel.

It was certainly very tense with a lot of people holding their breath and there was a lot of silence was we waited for updates.”

Brennan said there was a “tremendous sense of relief” when the mission was successfully accomplished. He also revealed that a replica of bin Laden's compound had been built to allow US forces to conduct drills ahead of the raid.

19.57 Brennan said it was "inconceivable" that bin Laden did not have a support network in Pakistan.

People are referring to it [bin Laden’s location] as hiding in plain sight. Pakistan is a large country, but we are looking at how he was able to hide there for so long.

We are talking with the Pakistanis on a regular basis and we are pursuing all leads to determine what kind of support system and benefactors he may have had.

It is inconceivable that bin Laden did not have a support system in the country that allowed him to remain there for such a long period of time.

I’m not going to speculate on what sort of support he may have had on an official basis.

But he added that Pakistan is responsbile for killing more terrorists than any other country and insisted that the US was committed to maintaining its "strategic relationship" with the country.

In initial conversations, the Pakistani authorities appeared "as surprised as we were" that the al-Qaeda leader was hiding out in Abbottabad, Brennan said.

19.50 Brennan has finished addressing reporters in the White House. He began by stressing that US forces would have taken bin Laden alive if they could.

Our goal was to prepare for all contingencies and if we had the opportunity to take bin Laden alive, if he didn’t pose any threat, then the individuals involved were ready and able to do that.

We had discussed that possibility in the White House, but the concern was that bin Laden would attempt to evade any capture operation, and indeed he did. There was a firefight.

19.36 The woman used by bin Laden as a human shield during the raid on his compound was "presumed to be his wife," Brennan says.

19.20 More Brennan at briefing: President Obama made one of "the most gutsiest calls" of any president in giving the go-ahead for the bin Laden raid.

Mr Brennan said bin Laden was hiding behind women, who were used as a human shield, when he was confronted by US special forces troops. One woman was killed.

19.17 At a White House briefing, head of US counter-terrorism John Brennan says the special forces would have picked up bin Laden alive if he had surrendered and offered no threat.

If there was an opportunity to take him alive, we would have done that, he said.

But Mr Brennan said President Obama was not prepared to risk US casualties.

Pressed over how it seems inconceivable that the Pakistani authorities could not have known that bin Laden was living in their military midst, Mr Brennan said that the US suspected bin Laden had some kind of support in Pakistan that allowed him to stay there.

But he said the US government was now hoping that the rest of al-Qaeda could now be buried along with bin Laden.

19.05 @David Amber a Canadian television presenter, reflects on the broadcasting stumbling blocks that arise when a man called Obama orders the death of a man called Osama.

I've now heard 3 different network anchors say 'the death of Obama..." - this is a broadcaster's nightmare

It stretches credulity to think that a mansion of that scale could have been built and occupied by bin Laden for six years without its coming to the attention of anyone in the Pakistani Army.

The initial circumstantial evidence suggests that the opposite is more likely—that bin Laden was effectively being housed under Pakistani state control. Pakistan will deny this, it seems safe to predict, and perhaps no convincing evidence will ever surface to prove the case. If I were a prosecutor at the United States Department of Justice, however, I would be tempted to call a grand jury.

18.52 A White House press briefing on the mission to kill bin Laden is about to begin. We will bring you all the details when it does.

18.50 John Kerry, the Senate Foreign Relations Chair and a former Democrat presidential candidate, said Mr Obama's decision to sign off on the mission to kill bin Laden was "gutsy". He added: "A lot of things could have gone wrong. They didn't."

Surrounded by 18ft walls topped by barbed wire, the only access was through two security gates. Built around five years ago at an estimated cost of £600,000, its accommodation block is three storey's tall.

Such is the emphasis on privacy that even the third-floor terrace is shielded by a seven-foot wall. Inside officials said the house was sectioned up – and may have even been designed to hide a secret home within a home.

18.40 Michael Bloomberg, the Mayor of New York, tells a press conference that the city remains a top terror target and bin Laden's death won't change that. "The forces of freedom and justice have once again prevailed over those who use terror to pursue tyranny," he adds.

18.30 Pakistan's leaders are under growing pressure to dispel allegations that they knew where bin Laden was hiding. Joseph Lieberman, chairman of the US Senate Homeland Security Committee, said at a news conference that Pakistan must "basically prove to us that they didn't know that bin Laden was there".

18.20Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, personally congratulated President Obama on the killing of bin Laden in a phone conversation today. A statement from Netanyahu's office said he had "praised the United States on behalf of Israeli citizens for the successful mission and the killing of Osama bin Laden".

18.10 Hillary Clinton has moved to quash accusations that Pakistani authorities knew bin Laden's whereabouts, telling reporters that the country's counter-terrorism officials helped lead the US to his compound.

Speaking at the State Department on Monday, the US Secretary of State thanked Pakistan for its cooperation and said that country "has contributed greatly to our efforts to dismantle al-Qaida." She said that "in fact, cooperation with Pakistan helped lead us to bin Laden and the compound in which he was hiding."

17.55 Osama bin Laden's former sister-in-law tells AP he would have wanted to die "rather than face justice in an American court."

Swiss-born Carmen Binladin, who separated from Osama's older brother Yeslam more than 20 years ago, says she believes believes the al-Qaeda leader had powerful supporters who protected and funded him up until the end, adding that his family in Saudi Arabia will have received the news of his death with "a great sense of sadness."

17.45 The Telegraph's Tim Ross is still trawling through leaked US documents on Osama Bin Laden and has discovered a diplomatic cablewhich alleges that Pakistani security forces helped him evade American troops for almost 10 years.

Crowds celebrating the death of Osama bin Laden in Times Square sing "The Star-Spangled Banner".

17.39 The US is now reviewing a large cache of materials seized at the Abbottabad compound, Reuters reports.

17.36 An WikiLeaks file unearthed by the Telegraph's Tim Ross shows how a “high value” detainee at Guantanamo Bay had close links to bin Laden’s personal courier and Abbottabad - the town where the al-Qaeda leader was finally found and killed.

17.26 The Pentagon has revealed more information about how bin Laden's mortal remains were disposed of. AP says that the body was placed into the waters of the North Arabian Sea after adhering to traditional Islamic procedures — including washing the corpse — aboard the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson (pictured below). Reuters quotes a US official as saying:

Preparations for at-sea burial began at 1:10 a.m. EST (0510 GMT) and were completed at 2a.m. EST. Traditional procedures for Islamic burial were followed. The deceased's body was washed and then placed in a white sheet. The body was placed in a weighted bag. a military officer read prepared religious remarks which were translated into Arabic by a native speaker. After the words were complete, the body was place on a prepared flat board, tipped up, whereupon the deceased's body eased into the sea.

The USS Carl Vinson, from where Osama bin Laden was buried at sea. (Photo: WIKIMEDIA COMMONS)

17.08 President Obama is speaking again. He says:

The world is safer, it is a better place, because of the death of Osama bin Laden. Today we are reminded that there is nothing we cannot do when we put our shoulders to the wheel. We have seen the display of patriotism here outside the White House, people waving flags, and singing the national anthem. We are fortunate to have Americans who risk their lives to protect ours - they take extraordinary risks so that we may be safe. We may not always know their names, we may not always know their stories, but they are always there, on the front line, and we are truly blessed.

I want to thank two people who have been critical in my team. Someone who will go down in history as one of the greatest defence secretaries, Bob Gate, and someone who will go down as one of the greatest secretaries of veterans' affairs in our history, Eric Ken Shinseki.

I have to say as commander in chief that I could not be prouder of our men and women in uniform than I am. It is true in this war, it is true in all wars, and it is true today. A poet of war once wrote: "They shall not grow old, as we grow old. Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn. At the going down of the sun and in the morning, we will remember them. We will remember them."

Mr Obama goes on to remember two veterans of the Korean war and honour them posthumously with the Congressional Medal of Honour.

17.04 A woman, believed to be one of Osama bin Laden's wives, identified the terrorist leader at the scene, according to an unnamed US intelligence official. That via Reuters.

17.02 Saudi Arabia's government has welcomed the death of the country's most notorious son. "Saudi Arabia hopes that the elimination of the leader of the terrorist Al-Qaeda organisation will be a step towards supporting international efforts aimed at combating terrorism", the state news agency said, quoting a government official as saying that the kingdom had suffered immensely from the violence of bin Laden.

16.58 When internet activity surrounding the Osama bin Laden killing hit its peak, Twitter was seeing more than 4,000 Tweets per second - either the second or third highest volume the social networking site has seen since its inception.

The helicopter carrying Navy SEALs malfunctioned as it approached Osama bin Laden’s compound at about 3:30 p.m. ET Sunday, stalling as it hovered. The pilot set it down gently inside the walls, then couldn’t get it going again.

It was a heart-stopping moment for President Barack Obama, who had been monitoring the raid in the White House Situation Room since 1 p.m., surrounded by members of his war cabinet.

This graphic shows where the attack took place:

16.44 Bin Laden's body was photographed before being buried at sea, according to Associated Press. No images have been released by the Obama administration, nor is it clear whether they intend to release any.

CNN say, further, that there are "photographs of the body with a gunshot wound to the side of the head that shows an individual who is not unrecognizable as bin Laden".

AP also report that US officials said he was identified through "facial recognition," a reference to technology for mapping unique facial characteristics, but it was not clear exactly how the Navy SEAL troops performed the comparison.

16.38 Ban Ki Moon, the UN Secretary General, has called the death of Osama bin Laden a "watershed moment" in the fight against terrorism, adding that Al-Qaeda's crimes had touched nearly every continent of the world.

"This is a day to remember the victims of terrorism here in the United States and everywhere in the world," Ban told reporters at UN headquarters.

16.14 Initial DNA results show a "very confident match" to al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, Reuters quotes a US official as saying. The test showed "high confirmation" that it was bin Laden killed in the raid in Pakistan, the official said. AP is reporting similarly that "two Obama administration officials say DNA evidence has proven that Osama bin Laden is dead, with 99.9 percent confidence."

16.10 BBC reports that a pollster puts the boost for President Obama's poll ratings at 10 points. We'll see in the coming days and weeks how accurate - and lasting - that is.

For me, and many other victims of the Sinn Fein/IRA terrorism which cost the lives of thousands in this Kingdom, there is something jarring in the way in which the Government lavishes praise on those who rid the world of one purveyor of terrorism whilst extending praise and even armed protection to those guilty of the same crimes here.

Finally, America has her revenge. As crowds gather outside the White House to celebrate, even the anti-war Huffington Post finds oddly political cheer in the news that Osama is dead, while USA Today leads with “Bin Laden Death Could Boost Markets”. Obama has prevailed; the patient, grisly War on Terror seems justified. And all of this has the feeling of a peculiarly American kind of justice, the kind that no other country in the world would probably either execute, or enjoy, quite so well.

Remember in 2008 when al-Qaeda inspired killers went on a rampage in Mumbai killing 166 civilians and security personal? Nine of the ten terrorists were eventually killed and one captured. The attackers all claimed to be acting in the name of Islam but the Muslim Council of India refused to bury them in the Muslim graveyard and Indian Imams declined to offer the prayer for the deceased.

According to a statement issues by the influential Muslim Jama Masjid Trust: "People who committed this heinous crime cannot be called Muslim. Islam does not permit this sort of barbaric crime."

If you tell me that you are staying in a rather nice walled compound in Abbottabad, I can tell you in return that you are the honored guest of a military establishment that annually consumes several billion dollars of American aid. It's the sheer blatancy of it that catches the breath.

In another nice line, he says that "There's some minor triumph in the confirmation that our old enemy was not a heroic guerrilla fighter but the pampered client of a corrupt and vicious oligarchy that runs a failed and rogue state."

When his sister, who has not been named, died from brain cancer several years ago in Boston the FBI immediately subpoenaed her body so that it could later be used to identify the al-Qaeda leader if he was caught, it was claimed.

The brain was preserved and tissue and blood samples taken from it were used to compile a DNA profile, ABC News reported.

It took almost ten years, but Osama is dead. That is the good news. The bad news is Obama is going to do what most politicians do, especially the liberal politicians. He is going to take credit for something that not only he had little to do with, but had we actually listened to him, the event never would have happened.

What should have happened, which would not happen under the Obama regime and to be fair, the Bush administration was too politically correct to do this either, but Osama’s body should have not been immediately buried. We should have told everyone that the body was wrapped in pig fat before burial.

15.25 Breaking news: Pakistan's former president Pervez Musharraf says that the US raid to kill Osama bin Laden was a "violation of Pakistan's borders". He does say that the killing has positive long-term implications.

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton makes a statement regarding the death of Osama bin Laden at the State Department in Washington. (Photo: AP)

Conspiracy theorists are an ingenious bunch, but at the moment the White House is making this ridiculously easy for them. Gideon Rachman says he gives it 24 hours before conspiracy theories about Osama bin Laden begin circulating, but they are already flowing vigorously. The Taliban says he’s still alive, for example

14.56 The Associated Press has a few more details on the disposal of Osama bin Laden's mortal remains. After bin Laden was killed in a raid by U.S. forces in Pakistan, senior administration officials said the body would be handled according to Islamic practice and tradition. That practice calls for the body to be buried within 24 hours, the official said. Finding a country willing to accept the remains of the world's most wanted terrorist would have been difficult, an official said, so the U.S. decided to bury him at sea.

I feel satisfaction and some emotional relief, but I don't feel great elation. I watch a lot of the celebrating and it makes me feel a little strange, I don't know. Nothing erases the loss of all those lives. ... so I feel satisfaction and i feel the right thing has been done. and I guess it will good thing ultimately but I don't feel like celebrating (as if it's) the end of World War II, because the war is still going on.

Most of the Western world is delighted with the death of Osama bin Laden this morning. But there’s a little corner of despair – the Stop the War Coalition has no idea how to react.

14.35 Hillary Clinton is speaking now. She says:

First I want to offer my thoughts and prayers for the thousands of families who lost loved ones in Osama bin Laden's campaign of terror.

These were not just attacks against Americans. These were attacks against the whole world. in London and Madrid and Bali and many other places, most of them Muslims, in subways and aircraft. His was an ideology that showed no respect to human life.

I hope that families can find some comfort in the fact that justice has been served.

Second I want to echo the President in praising our troops, our intelligence experts, our diplomats and our security officials who have worked for over a decade to find bin Laden.

Our close cooperation with Pakistan has put unprecedented pressure on al-Qaeda. That cooperation must continue. Our battle to stop al-Qaeda and its syndicate of terror will not stop with the death of Osama bin Laden.

Our message to the Taliban remains the same, but today it may have even greater resonance: you cannot wait us out. You cannot defeat us. But you can make the choice to abandon al-Qaeda and cooperate in a peaceful political process.

As the President said, bin Laden had also declared war on Pakistan. In recent years the cooperation between our governments increased pressure on al-Qaeda and the Taliban. This process must continue.

At a time when people across the Middle East and north Africa, when people are rejecting extremism and seeking democracy, there can be no better rebuke to al-Qaeda.

The fight continues and we will never waver.

I know there are many who thought that this day would never come, who questioned our resolve. But I remind them that this is America. We get the job done. 10 years after 9/11 our American spirit still shines through.

I've done my best to take down her comments; we'll get a fuller version soon.

The Prime Minister, in his statement from Chequers, expressed satisfaction that the mass murderer had met his fate, and congratulated both the President and American forces for taking the decision to act, and then completing the mission. To judge by his tone jubilation is rightly being tempered by realism.

14.22 Ikram Sehgal, a Pakistani security analyst and former helicopter pilot, says on the BBC that it is impossible that the Pakistani security forces could have been unaware of the US operation. The heliocopters could not have flown under the radar, he says. Further, he adds, Pakistan and the US co-operate fully on security matters.

14.18Hillary Clinton, the US Secretary of State, is to give a press conference in the next few minutes.

In the meantime, here's President Obama's speech this morning in full:

14.16 The Muslim Council of Britain has issued a statement on the death of bin Laden:

Few will mourn the reported death of Osama Bin Laden, least of all Muslims. Many Muslims will reflect on the 10 years that have passed in which our faith and our community have been seen through the prism of terrorism and security. The Muslim Council of Britain has consistently stood firm against terrorism and violence, and will continue to do so. Today our thoughts must be with the families of all those who suffered in the terrorist attacks around the world as well as of thousands of innocent lives lost in the wars against terrorism.

In order to confirm that the body was, in fact, Bin Laden, U.S. officials subpoenaed DNA from Bin Laden's sister (who had died in a Boston hospital) and found a match.

13.48 Regarding the legality of the kill operation: it seems that under Article 51 of the UN Charter, nations are guaranteed the right of self-defence - and UN Resolution 1368, issued on 12 September 2001 while fires were still burning at Ground Zero, recognised that "the inherent right of individual or collective self-defence in accordance with the Charter" in the light of the attacs, and called upon states "to work together urgently to bring to justice the perpetrators, organizers and sponsors of these terrorist attacks". So it certainly seems that there is legal cover for the raid. When we get more expert legal opinion I'll pass it on.

13.45 Defence Secretary Liam Fox has ordered all British military bases to maintain a "high level of vigilance" in the wake of bin Laden's death:

In view of the possibility of violent attacks from al Qaida or its sympathisers, I have directed my department to maintain a high level of vigilance in all UK defence facilities at home and abroad.

Now that Osama is dead, the most intriguing question is this: Did any Pakistani officials help hide him?

We’re entitled to ask. Ever since 9/11—indeed, even before—Pakistan’s military and intelligence services have played a high-stakes double game. They’ve supported American efforts to kill and capture al-Qaeda fighters, and they have been lavished with billions of American dollars in return. At the same time, elements of those same military and intelligence services, particularly those inside Inter-Service Intelligence, or the I.S.I., have provided support for America’s enemies, namely the Taliban and its lethal off-shoot, the Haqqani network. American officials are fully aware of the double-game, and to say it frustrates them would be an understatement. For a decade, Pakistan’s role has been one of the great unmovable paradoxes of America’s war.

[Bin Laden's death is] a tremendous achievement for the military and intelligence professionals who carried out this important mission. I also want to congratulate President Obama and the members of his national security team.

al-Qaeda remains a dangerous enemy. Though bin Laden is dead, the war goes on.

13.29 The US special forces team that hunted down Osama bin Laden was under orders to kill the al-Qaeda mastermind, not capture him, a US national security official has told Reuters.

"This was a kill operation," the official said, making clear there was no desire to try to capture bin Laden alive in Pakistan.

The photo, which depicted a bloodied head with a strong resemblance to the al Qaida leader, was widely used on TV networks and newspaper websites - including in the UK - as news broke of his death this morning.

Online users of websites such as Twitter soon exposed the image as a hoax which had reportedly been in circulation as early as 2009.

The photograph appears to have been digitally manipulated to combine the lower half of bin Laden's face, from a genuine 1998 photo, with a photograph of the head of an unidentified corpse.

Stokes Young, director of multimedia at MSNBC.com, wrote on the site's photoblog that two US officials had "warned NBC News that the image is a hoax".

He wrote: "Based on an initial look into the image file, we agree, and think it's a fake.

"At first glance, the pixellation around the "wound" area and the odd lack of transition between different-coloured cloth and flesh indicate that the image has been manipulated.

"Furthermore, the facial expression and beard are very reminiscent of a 1998 image of bin Laden."

After overlaying the two images, he added: "The way the images 'lock' in place at the mouth, beard and nose indicate to us that the image circulating on the web and some foreign television outlets is nothing but a clumsy fake."

13.11Piers Morgan retweets an American called Brandon McGill, who says of bin Laden's death "Mark Twain said it best: 'I have never wished a man dead, but I have read some obituaries with great pleasure.'"

@JonSwaineAt Ground Zero. Incredible. Big chant just now: "Yes we can". Good riddance to the man who ruined the decade.

12.56 Patricia Bingley, from London, who lost her only son Kevin Dennis, 43, in the 9/11 attacks, has told the BBC of her relief at bin Laden's death. She said:

I am very, very relieved. I have been waiting 10 years to hear this news, it's a great relief to me. I never thought I would live to see it happen. I am very grateful indeed...I really thought they had forgotten about him and he had just disappeared.

I am really glad that he was killed because it would have brought a lot of repurcussions if they had kept him alive. I wanted him caught and killed straight away.

She added: "I think about my son every day. He was the light of my life. My cockney boy living the American dream."

For Osama bin Laden, violent death must have come as a blessing. It has given him, at least fleetingly, a seeming prominence that in fact had long since ebbed away, not only in the Muslim world, but even within al-Qaeda itself.

To many in the US, for whom bin Laden's demise is indeed an important event, president Barack Obama's announcement represents long-delayed justice for the victims of the September 11, 2001 attacks and the fulfillment of a long-standing promise from two quite different US presidents. But in the Muslim world, where bin Laden and the movement he spawned produced the vast majority of their victims, the enigmatic Saudi's passing represents something quite different.

12.45 Actor Rob Lowe has joined the celebrations in New York's Times Square:

Rob Lowe, The West Wing actor, celebrates with New York Fire Department firemen in New York at the news of Osama bin Laden's death. (Photo: REUTERS)

Locals witnessed the US military helicopters carrying out the operation, though they were mystified by news of its target.

"We saw four helicopters at around 2am. We were told to switch off lights of our homes and stay inside", said a Jaffar Ali, a government employee, who lives in Bilal town in Abbottabad district of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. He also said he had seen the wreckage of the helicopter that had suffered a malfunction and was then destroyed by US forces.

12.31 One of Osama bin Laden's most high-profile supporters in the UK has warned that another "7/7" is now more likely. Anjem Choudary, the sharia lecturer and spokesman for Muslims Against Crusades, said:

I think Britain is more likely to face a 7/7 today than ever. This will encourage more people to participate. [Bin Laden] became a figurehead leader, someone who sacrificed a lot for the Muslim community. He gave his wealth, he sacrificed a lot for the sake of others. [British supporters loved him] the way they care about their own parents.

[Bin Laden's death] will merely act as an incentive to prove to the world that the death of anyone will not affect them", he added in a statement. Rather than dampening the spirits of those who are today engaged in jihad physically around the world... his death will merely act as an incentive to prove to the world that the death of anyone will not affect them.

Hence in the coming days and weeks we will no doubt see increased activities from the mujahideen and more intense fighting in the battlefields of Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia, Chechnya.

12.21 al-Qaeda will retaliate for the killing of bin Laden, two experts warn. John Gearson, reader in terrorism studies and director of the Centre for Defence Studies at King's College London, said organisations across the globe were now likely to "ramp up" their security:

I think the significance of what has happened cannot really be overstated. I would expect embassies and military bases around the world to be on high alert for some time.

There will be concerns that there could be some sort of retaliation, that al Qaida may well want to demonstrate that they are still strong and still in the game. The danger is that the Americans may well lose their focus, that they will relax and that will provide an opportunity for the remnants of al Qaida to reform and grow stronger. Al Qaida will remain a major security concern.

And former British Army colonel Richard Kemp, commander of British forces in Afghanistan in 2003, echoed his fears, suggesting the Taliban could now look to bin Laden's deputy, Ayman al Zawahiri, for leadership:

I think this is not the end of al Qaida by any means. They will try and recover, they will undoubtedly try and strike back in some form. I don't suppose they will manage a major attack but they will try and strike back in some form in the short term, in retaliation for the death of bin Laden.

And meanwhile, others will take on his mantle. Al Zawahiri, his number two, will presumably step up to lead al Qaida now ... this is a major blow for al Qaida and a lot of their supporters will now sit back and think.

12.09 Ismail Haniya, the head of Gaza's Hamas government, has condemned the killing, according to the BBC.

12.05 ABC has the first footage of the inside of the compound - we're seeing this via the BBC. This image shows blood on the floor of one of the rooms:

12.04 Video of the celebrations in the US:

12.02 Ben Farmer, our man in Afghanistan, emails with the following quotes from Karl Eikenberry, US ambassador to Kabul:

Afghans have suffered as much as any other nation from the campaign of terror that he and his extremist followers undertook. His victims - Afghan, American and from many other nations - will never be forgotten.

As President Obama said, “Bin Laden was not a Muslim leader; he was a mass murderer of Muslims.”

This victory will not mark the end of our effort against terrorism. America's strong support for the people of Afghanistan will continue as before.

Ben also informs us that Vygaudas Usackas, the European Union’s ambassador to Afghanistan, said the death of Osama bin Laden could be a “game changer” in the country:

It could be a game changer in boosting the morale and confidence of the US and international community that the efforts and sacrifices of almost the past 10 years of involvement in Afghanistan and in the region are not in vain.

[The killing] will inject the regional players with confidence to move forward with greater cooperation and steps in support of peace and reconciliation.

Wow. A momentous day. I was here in Washington on September 11th 2001 when Osama bin Laden declared, as the Telegraph’s headline put it the next day: “War on America”.

Then, it seemed scarcely conceivable that bin Laden would escape US retribution for more than a few months. By the same token, if anyone had said then that the US would go for nearly a decade without suffering a major terrorist attack on its soil they’d have been viewed as an idiot.

Diane Massaroli joined crowds clutching a photograph of her husband, Michael, a worker at the Cantor Fitzgerald brokerage, was killed when he could not escape from his office on the 101st floor. His remains were never found.

"I feel relief, I feel a closure that I thought I would never get," she told NY1 television from Ground Zero. "I just had to come here now. People are taking pictures of me with the photo of my husband. They are all very sweet."

A baseball player for the New York Mets celebrates during a game when the news breaks that Osama bin Laden has been killed. (Photo: BBC)

Small congregations in Muslim societies are an easy target for Islamists, who are already engaged in an international campaign of violent intimidation against Christians. And let us not forget that the 9/11 attacks themselves were partly motivated by hatred of Christianity.

I’ve seen it written in a couple of places that even if he was no longer a key figure in the operational plans of al-Qaeda, the killing of Osama bin Laden has only upsides and no downsides.

That’s clearly wrong. Even leaving aside the possibility of retaliatory attacks, which has already been widely taken into account, and even without challenging the positives, there are clearly possible negative short- and long-term consequences.

The second tower of the World Trade Center bursts into flames on September 11, 2001 (Photo: Reuters)

11.27 Here is the full sequence of Tweets from Sohaib Athar, ReallyVirtual on Twitter, who first, inadvertently, live-Tweeted the attack on the compound. It started with this Tweet saying that a helicopter hovering over the area was a 'rare event':

It doesn’t change the fact that Osama bin Laden is dead. But it does prove that photos of the corpse are not in the public domain. Yet.

11.11 The news first broke on Twitter via this Tweet from Keith Urbahn, the chief of staff to former US defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld:

@keithurbahn: So I'm told by a reputable person they have killed Osama Bin Laden. Hot damn.

Mr Urbahn has since downplayed his role in breaking the news, saying: "My source was a connected network TV news producer. Stories about 'the death of the mainstream media' because of my 'first' tweet are greatly exaggerated. As much as I believe in rise of 'citizen journalism', blogs, twitter etc supplanting traditional media, my tweet isn't great evidence of it."

11.05 A TV station in the US, affiliated with Fox News, has made a crucial typo in its coverage - and announced the death of "Obama bin Laden". The mistake has been widely disseminated on Twitter.

11.01 The Press Trust of India reports that Osama bin Laden's compound in Abbottabad was just 800 yards from the Pakistani Military Academy, where officers for the Pakistani army are trained - the equivalent of Britain's Sandhurst.

10.57 Ed Miliband MP, the British opposition leader, says:

Osama Bin Laden committed one of history's most appalling acts of terrorism and the world is a safer place because he will no longer be able to command or encourage acts of terror. For the victims of 9/11 and their families, nothing can take away the pain of what happened but this will provide an important sense of justice. Despite the death of Osama Bin Laden, our vigilance against the perpetrators of terrorism must and will continue."

10.52 Douglas Eaton, who lost his son Robert in the September 11 attacks in 2001, says that he would have preferred to see bin Laden brought to trial:

I had no particular feeling of euphoria. If it leads to more peace in the world, one can only applaud it, but my concern is that there could be more outbreaks of violence because of what has happened. That would be most unfortunate.

It would appear that he has had plenty of support otherwise he wouldn't have survived for so long. If the man had been brought to trial and found guilty, it would have been a better outcome from my point of view.

10.44 Sir Jeremy Greenstock, the UK's former ambassador to the UN, thinks that a "lot of the point" of al-Qaeda has died with Osama bin Laden. He tells the BBC that bin Laden had almost singlehandedly driven the terror group's agenda, taking it away from its original intention of removing American troops from Saudi Arabia and towards a broader intention of establishing an Islamic caliphate. He says that while there will undoubtedly be more attacks from this brand of "distorted Islam", the death of bin Laden will remove a lot of impetus from the movement.

10:30Ben Farmer has spoken to Amrullah Salehm, the former head of Afghanistan's National Directorate of Security.

President Barack Obama’s announcement that Osama bin Laden has been killed pushed the dollar higher, reversing recent weakness, and caused commodities priced in that currency – including gold, silver and oil – to fall.

10:00 Tony Blair has expressed his "heartfelt gratitude" to President Barack Obama today for the military operation which killed Osama bin Laden.

My heartfelt gratitude to President Obama and to all of those who so brilliantly undertook and executed this operation.

We should never forget 9/11 was also the worst ever terrorist attack against UK civilians, and our thoughts are with all those - American, British and from nations across the world - who lost their lives and with their loved ones who remain and who live with their loss.

9/11 was an attack not just on the United States, but on all those who shared the best values of civilisation.

The operation shows those who commit acts of terror against the innocent will be brought to justice, however long it takes.

So this is a huge achievement in the fight against terrorism but we know the fight against the terrorism and the ideology that Bin Laden represents continues and is as urgent as ever.

09:45 Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani has said that the US killing of Osama bin Laden, not far from the Pakistani capital, is a "great victory".

We will not allow our soil to be used against any other country for terrorism and therefore I think it's a great victory, it's a success and I congratulate the success of this operation

Statement from Pakistan's Foreign Office:

Osama Bin Ladin's death illustrates the resolve of the international community including Pakistan to fight and eliminate terrorism. It constitutes a major setback to terrorist organizations around the world. Al-Qaeda had declared war on Pakistan. Scores of Al-Qaeda sponsored terrorist attacks resulted in deaths of thousands of innocent Pakistani men, women and children.

09:43 The Vatican says Bin Laden will have to answer to God for killing so many people and stirring up religious hatred.

Spokesman Father Federico Lombardi said that while Christians "do not rejoice" over a death, it serves to remind them of "each person's responsibility before God and men".

Osama bin Laden, as everyone knows, had the grave responsibility of having spread division and hate among people, causing the deaths of an innumerable number of people and exploiting religion for these purposes.

Osama bin Laden, who was killed by American special forces on May 2 aged 54, was the world’s most wanted international terrorist and the presumed architect of the shocking events of September 11 2001, when hijacked jets ploughed into the twin towers of the Trade Centre in New York and the Pentagon in Washington, killing thousands of people.

09:40 David Cameron has said the death of Osama bin Laden will 'bring great relief to people across the world'.

It is a great success that he has been found and will no longer be able to pursue his campaign of global terror

US reports say Osama bin Laden's compound was one of the largest in an affluent neighbourhood of Abbottabad.

Estimated to be worth around a million dollars (£600,000), it was surrounded by 18ft walls topped by barbed wire, the only access was through two security gates. A third-floor terrace was shielded by a seven-foot privacy wall.

Suspicions were raised by the fact that no phone lines or internet cables ran to the property and the residents burned their rubbish rather than putting it out for collection.

09.25 The Telegraph's Ben Farmer has been speaking Amrullah Saleh, the former Afghan spy chief. He believes Pakistan must have been hiding Osama bin Laden.

Does Pakistan want the whole world to believe that the intelligence agency of a nuclear state did not know OBL was there? If Bin Laden can hide there for ten years, of course Mullah Omar [leader of the Taliban] and his Quetta Shura are nearby and can be protected.

09:04Ben Farmer in Kabul says that before news of bin Laden’s death broke, newspapers in Pakistan were reporting an intense fire fight and helicopter crash in Abbottabad. Three loud explosions were heard near the Pakistan Military Academy late on Sunday evening and then heavy firing, before the helicopter crashed according to witnesses.

08:52 British embassies around the world have been put on heightened security alert amid concerns of possible reprisal attacks by al-Qaeda. William Hague said that elements of al-Qaeda were still "in business" and they would need to be vigilant for "some time to come".

08:49 Abbottabad is in the Hazara district of Pakistan's North-Western Frontier Province - renamed last year as Khyber Pakhtoonkhwa province - less than 50 miles north of capital Islamabad. Despite its proximity to the lawless tribal areas where Islamist extremists have established strongholds, the town is firmly under government control, with thousands of troops based there. It is the headquarters of a brigade of the Second Division of the Northern Army Corps and many retired officers are understood to live there.

08.45 The New York Times is reporting that bin Laden's body was taken to Afghanistan and then buried at sea.

08:41 David Hartley, whose wife Marie, 34, of Lancashire, was killed in the 7/7 attacks, has said the news brought no real sense of justice.

They have got one but there are more behind there.

I can't see this meaning terrorism is likely to stop there. They might try retaliating a bit more now.

There is no sense of justice. They have some one but there are plenty of people willing to take his place.

He is just one of them.

08:39 Interpol has warned of a "heightened terror risk" in the wake of bin Laden's death.

08:35 The New York Daily News keeps its message simple with the front page headline: ROT IN HELL

08:28Ben Farmer, our correspondent in Kabul, reports that Hamid Karzai has made a defiant address, saying today is an “important day”, but saying Osama bin Laden’s death in Abbottabad proved Afghanistan was not a terrorist haven.

He complained that many Afghan civilians had been killed while Nato forces had searched for al-Qaeda, but terrorism was “not in villages of Afghanistan”.

He went on to say the Taliban should "learn a lesson" from Osama Bin Laden's death.

"The Taliban should refrain from fighting."

08:20 Toby Harden, our correspondent in Washington, has posted his thoughts on the demise of bin Laden on his blog.

08:15 A US official has told CNN that bin Laden's body has been buried at sea to avoid his burial place becoming a shrine for terrorists.Nick Allennotes that the move could backfire, giving ammunition to conspiracy theorists.

08:12 Sarah Palin hastaken to Facebook to express her gratitude to US troops involved in the operation.

"God bless all the brave men and women in our military and our intelligence services who contributed to carrying out the successful mission to bring bin Laden to justice and who laid the groundwork over the years to make this victory possible."

08:10 The BBCreports that the Taliban is refusing to comment on news of bin Laden's death and "our investigation is continuing."

08:00 The Western-backed Palestinian Authority has said the killing of Osama bin Laden was "good for the cause of peace".

"Getting rid of Bin Laden is good for the cause of peace worldwide but what counts is to overcome the discourse and the methods - the violent methods - that were created and encouraged by Bin Laden and others in the world," a spokesman said.

07:58 Reaction from Jihadist internet forums has been reported by Reuters.

"Oh God, please make this news not true... God curse you\rObama," said one message on an Arabic language forum. "Osama may be killed but his message of Jihad will never die," said another posting.

07:34 Harry Waizer, a survivor of 9/11, told the New York Times that "I just can't find it in me to be glad one more person is dead, even if it is Osama bin Laden."

07:28 As they wake up to the news, Europe's leaders are releasing statements.

The killing of Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden is "good news for all men in the world who think freely and are peaceful," German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle said.

07:23 A photograph of Osama bin Laden after he was shot is apparently doing the rounds on the internet. Pakistani TV has been showing images of a corpse that turn out to be fakes.

06:57 Reaction from around the world continues. Julia Gillard, the Australian prime minister, has warned that "al-Qaeda is not finished" and said the war on terrorism must continue.

06:50 India says the news confirms that Pakistan is a "sanctuary" for terrorists.

06:39The New York Timessays the death of Bin Laden is "a defining moment in the American-led war on terrorism".

What remains to be seen is whether it galvanizes his followers by turning him into a martyr, or whether the death serves as a turning of the page in the war in Afghanistan and gives further impetus to the Obama administration to bring American troops home.

06:30 Israel has welcomed the "liquidation" of bin Laden.

06:21 Looks likeSohaib Athar, an IT consultant who lives in Abbottabad inadvertantly live tweeted the raid.

Helicopter hovering above Abbottabad at 1AM (is a rare event)

06:00 More details of the raid that killed Osama bin laden have come out. Toby Harnden reports he died in a hail of bullets fired during a helicopter assault led by US Navy SEALs. Congressional sources said he was shot in the head.

05:45 David Cameron says bin Laden's death is a "great relief" to the world.

05:30 Several thousand people are thronging around Ground Zero, where most of the 3,000 victims of 9/11 were killed. Hundreds have also gathered outside the White House singing "Star Spangled Banner".

"We found him. He killed 3.000 people. It's justice," said 19-year-old student Jon Garcia, explaining he had come to the White House "to be a part of it. It's very historic".

05.00 The US has issued a travel warning to Americans amid fears of reprisal attacks.

04.30BST (23.45, 1 May, US Eastern Standard Time; 08.30 Islamabad) Barack Obama announces that bin Laden had been killed after he was located at a fortified compound in Abbotabad,Pakistan. The compound had been under surveillance since last August and Mr Obama, who was briefed regularly over the course of nine months, authorised the attack last Friday.